Pam chides NFF, LMC over Eagles’ CHAN defeat

The chairman of JUTH FC of Jos Ishaya Pams has taken a swipe at the achievements of Super Eagles Coach Stephen Keshi since he took over as Head Coach of the senior national team, Pams believes all of the team’s successes at the 2013 Africa Nations Cup in South Africa where it won a third crown for the country as well as Nigeria’s first-time-ever qualification for the Championship of African Nations (CHAN) yesterday in Abidjan, are all based on luck and not proper planning.

Speaking against the backdrop of the home-based Eagles’ qualification for the 2014 CHAN championship holding in South Africa next year, Pams, who was the immediate past Chief Medical Director of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, said: “You cannot have a stable national team, without a stable national league.

Everyone saw what happened in Abidjan at the weekend, the Elephants almost cancelled the three-goal deficit in the first half. It was sheer luck that saw us through.

“That goes a long way to prove that our successes so far in various championships is just because of luck and nothing more. We don’t plan at all. We were all busy celebrating our victory at AFCON early in the year, but refused to put a formidable structure on ground to consolidate on that.”

“So, what happened at the Confederations Cup in Brazil? Nothing!”.

What we have been doing is to always rush out to bring overseas players to the national team, whether they do well or not we accept it. We are just bouncing about.

“Every country that has a good national team has good leagues and very organised academy systems. We don’t have those things and we want to win always. Though we have good players in our local league, we don’t have a youth football programme.

“I feel sorry for the coaches because at the national team you don’t need to be teaching the players how to control and pass balls. That is exactly what the coaches do at our national teams. I really pity them because they work in a very tight situation.

“When we win it is all about providence and not because of good planning. Many of the players they are talking about are all over-aged players. They play well in a tournament, in the next one they are injured and they cannot recover from it again.

“The emphasis is ‘scapegoatism’. All of these coaches are drafted in in a hurry. If Keshi fails tomorrow, the next thing is to fire him, and get another person, but the basic structures to enable him perform would not be in place,” he said.

The medical practitioner whose tenure as chairman saw the Jos-based team gaining promotion to premiership, disagrees with the decision of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to slam a life ban on the players of the four teams involved in the 146-goal match-fixing saga in two Nationwide Division 3 play-off matches in Buachi. He said: “I was amazed, I was shocked, I was saddened but I was not surprised. It has been a gradual deterioration, because they say a stitch in time saves nine.

“When Akwa United and Calabar Rovers did theirs that ended 13-0, nothing happened. Same to that between Kaduna United and Zamfara United which ended 9-0. Everything was swept under the carpet. If you remember, it was that match that led to the relegation of my team. Now, we have reached 146-0.”

“I was saddened because I know the Plateau United Feeders team very well. But, what people don’t know is that JUTH FC Feeders team played that Plateau United feeders in the qualifying match of that competition in Plateau State. They beat us 1-0 in a controversial manner, and went to Bauchi to run into trouble.

“So, these things have been going on but people have not been sensitised about it. It is the corruption in the league that has trickled down to the feeder teams. It is very bad.

“The young boys have come to realise that anything goes in football in Nigeria. They saw what happened in the bigger leagues and nothing happened, so, what law have they broken? They can go to court and win their case. If 13-0 is not match-fixing, then what makes 146-0 match fixing?

“I believe they have a good case in court. I am not defending them, but I know that the decision of banning them for life should be out of it, because when it happened to the older ones, nothing was done. I don’t think they should do that to the children because they are victims of maladministration, improper training, among others.” he concluded.